On our way back to Pipe Spring from Zion National Park, we took a scenic tour of Kanab Utah. Kanab is the closest town of any size to Pipe Spring and is the place where we will look for restaurants, go to see a movie, and grocery shop. Melonie is a native of this area of Arizona / Utah, so we asked her to show us around Kanab. Tom and I stopped in Kanab in 2006 but the town has changed some since then.
Kanab Utah is located on US 89, just over the border from Arizona. The town is the only town of any size between Page Arizona and St. George Utah. It is on the route that everyone travels if they are going to Glen Canyon, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, or Bryce Canyon. Consequently it gets lots of traffic and plenty of tourists passing through. Even though the town only has 4,400 residents, it feels busier.
On this first pass through town, Melonie pointed out several restaurants and told us some good places to eat. We passed the movie theater, Crescent Moon Theater, which shows one movie every day for a week, and then changes to another movie. If there is something we want to see, we won’t put it off!
Speaking of movies, Kanab is known as a location for a lot of different movies. Over 100 movies and television series have been filmed in the area since 1924. If you watched any of these movies, you have seen the area around Kanab: My Friend Flicka, Roll Wagons Roll, Lone Ranger television series, Drums Along the Mohawk, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Fort Yuma, The Misfits, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Duel at Diablo, and Maverick. Kanab takes pride in being “The Little Hollywood” and has a Little Hollywood Museum. Kanab is said to be one of John Wayne’s favorite places to film movies.
We found the Kanab Drug Store and Melonie pointed out the two grocery stores: Honeys and Glaziers. We shopped at both of them. Honeys had wider aisles but seemed emptier. Glaziers Market is now our regular place to shop. The drug store is mostly tourist items but I can get my allergy medicine there. Kanab Drug Store has a soda fountain and a nice selection of cards for every occasion. We found the True Value Hardware store, which – like most small town hardware stores – has a huge variety of items for sale. One local told us, “You can find everything you need in Kanab. Maybe not the brand or the size you want, but everything you need.”
In the years since we first visited Kanab, the town has changed somewhat. It feels more like Moab (hip and touristy) and less like a backwater town. There are plenty of choices for restaurants and lots of adventure tour companies. We can rent a jeep for the days we want to explore some of the hundreds of miles of dirt roads in the area.
The town has some pretty parks, a community swimming pool, and a little airport. After the recent finger incident, we located the small community hospital. Good for emergency care although Tom does not intend to need it. Kanab has a few chain restaurants: Pizza Hut, Wendys, Subway, and McDonalds. The other places to eat are all local and we look forward to trying some of them.
We are thankful Kanab is only 25 miles away from Pipe Spring. Relatively close by so we can get our shopping done and explore the town a little in an afternoon. We tried one restaurant before we drove out of town that first day. But that is a post for tomorrow.